"Salina - The Last Vertebra", play written by Laurent Gaudé premiered in Rio de Janeiro city in 2015.

The play proposes a deep involvement into an ancient Africa to tell us an universal and timeless story, inspired by African-Brazilian traditions – especially Congado (a kind of theatrical and religious performance) and Candomblé –, but also formed by elements coming from different civilizations, as the Greek tragedy and African epics. The theme of “Salina” is about the hate and forgiveness. The Laurent Gaudé’s text brings us an imaginary Africa, going into a deep human work.

The show was conceived from a project which has involved several steps: training for the actors, research about scene and artistic interchanges. In this way, a new Africa has been invented. It has been slowly developed by the actor’s personal experiences and memories, their bodies in movement, their imagination and by profound sense of ancestry. A symbolic territory has been created, where we were able to produce an identity covering mixed races and offsprings. This outcome is the meeting of several African cultures and different points of view and exchanges that took place during the project execution.

The survey has counted on the collaboration of Jorge Antonio dos Santos, a master drummer of congado from Minas Gerais (a southeastern State in Brazil).

In 2015, the show is nominated for the following theater awards in Brazil: